Passport office staff work with zeal, clear the backlog

The Hindu: Tiruchi: Sunday, 07 September 2014.

A record 36,000 passports issued in August alone: Working over time to clear the backlog of applications in the wake of shortage of passport booklets, the Tiruchi Regional Passport Office has issued 36,000 passports in August.

Normally, the Regional Passport Office issues 12,000 passports a month. The Passport Office had taken up a special drive to clear the pending applications consequent to the short supply of passport booklets that prevailed for about two months. The short-supply had resulted in a backlog of about 25,000 applications in July.

“With regular supply of passport booklets resuming last month, a drive to clear the pendency was launched on August 22. We introduced a shift system and a team of our staff worked hard in three shifts, including night shifts, to issue the passports. We were able to clear the backlog by printing 2,500 passports a day against the normal average of 700,” said K. Balamurugan, Regional Passport Officer, Tiruchi.

During the short-supply of passport booklets, the issue of passports a day had come to just 300 and urgent cases were given priority.

According Mr. Balamurugan, the backlog was cleared on September 4 and the passport office has achieved ‘zero pendency’ situation.

A special adalat (Audit Day) is to be held on September 13 to take up applications that are pending for various other reasons. Applications which are pending despite receipt of police verification reports would be taken up for review during the adalat. Such applicants could visit the office at Marakkadai in the city between 10 a.m. and noon on the day, Mr. Balamurugan said.

He pointed out that a Social Audit Cell was functioning at the office where all information normally given under the Right To Information (RTI) Act is made available to applicants in the form of hard copies without any fee.

For information and information on the status of police verification reports, applicants can call 0431-2707203/2707404 or the toll-free number 1800-258-1800. They can also visit www.passportindia.gov.in.